3-13: Legislation and Policy

Pre-Class Preparation

Objectives

• To review global, national, and local legislative processes in addressing global change issues.
• To review successes and failures of international agreements on environmental change and the prospects for future progress in addressing management of our environmental future.

Procedure

1. Read the learning unit.

   Class images

2. Take the learning unit quiz. Quizzes are available from your portfolio. You may access your portfolio via the list of students participating in this year's course, as represented by the icon below.
   
   
3. Additional Required Reading. Although you are not ultimately responsible for content listed in this section, we encourage you to fully explore the links in order to provide a better scope on the upcoming class discussion.

   	Climate and food security.(From UNEP.)
   	The debate over allocating responsibility for climate change. (From UNEP.)
   	How policy makers are responding to global climate change. (From UNEP.)
   	The issue of winners and losers. (From UNEP.)
   	Tax to Combat Global Warming?

Class Discussion

• Problem to ponder...

• Class Discussion Summary:

Post-Class Activities

• Participate in the electronic dialog. Use this forum for:
  • continuing class discussion;
  • posing new questions to students or the instructor;
  • responding to issues/questions raised by students in class/electronic dialog.

  Visitor Access (Visitors are welcome to participate in the dialog. Just click on the icon below)	Student Access (Students must post all dialog from their portfolio. Click on the icon below to access the student list.)

• Recommended Reading Materials

  	Changing Climate May Hurt Less Developed Countries, Help Developed Ones
  	CIESIN Thematic Guides: Policies and Responses.
  	Framework Convention on Climate Change, Berlin, April 1995.
  	Insurance against climate change? The AOSIS proposal. (From UNEP.)
  	International response to climate change. (From UNEP.)
  	Internet Dialog on International Food Security Issues.
  	Matters of Scale: Arteriosclerosis of the Earth.
  	Policies, Programs, and Opportunities for Your Involvement.
  	Why the poor are vulnerable. (From UNEP.)
  	Will the North-South gap widen? (From UNEP.)
  	Arrow, K., et al, 1995: Economic Growth, Carrying Capacity, and the Environment. Science, 268, 520-521.
  	Morrisette, Peter M., 1989: The Evolution of Policy Responses to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion. Natural Resources Journal, 29, 783-820.
  	Myers, Norman, 1995: Environmental Unknowns. Science, 269, 358-360.

• References

  	EPA's CBEP homepage.
  	Eizenstat Prepared Testimony on Kyoto Protocol
  	Glossary (Weathervane)
  	Iowa Greenhouse Gas Action Plan.
  	Weathervane - a digital forum on global change policy
  	Website of the Iowa Division, United Nations Association-USA
  	Lubchenco, Jane, 1998: Entering the century of the environment: A new social contract for science. Science 279, 491-497.
  	Romm, J., M. Levine, M. Brown, and E. Petersen, 1998: A road map for US carbon reductions. Science 279, 669-670.